Follow us as we share our thoughts and experiences from the idiopathic scoliosis diagnosis in March 2014 through to surgery and recovery. As told from the perspectives of both parents and the (at time of diagnosis) 12 year old patient (and maybe even some observations from her little brother). Ontario, Canada.

Friday, January 30, 2015

A Picture and a Song

Today we travelled back down to McMaster Children's Hospital to visit Dr. Missiuna at his fracture clinic for our first post-discharge appointment. As with most visits to the hospital we spend more time finding parking and waiting than we do anything else. It's not normally a big deal but Pants was experiencing the worst pain she says she's felt since she came out of surgery. I suspect her latest dose of pain meds hadn't kicked in yet and the 45 minute journey in the car couldn't have been comfortable. At any rate, they got us into a room so she could lie down and she started to feel better.

Doctor Missiuna came in eventually and took the bandage off her back that was covering up her stitches. He said the wound looked great and that she should take a shower! He also said that she'd start to feel a lot better after about 3 weeks post surgery and that part time school could occur then, with a gradual approach to returning to full time school as her pain and fatigue levels allow.

We asked about physio and he said that would start at about 3 months post op. We asked about her body movement and how long it would be before she started to move around more naturally and get used to her new body. He said that at 6-12 weeks they start to feel more comfortable, and that she's still ahead of the curve.

Then, he showed us what we've been eager to see since she got out of surgery. The latest set of x-rays! I asked for a CD of the x-rays from the hospital and they (reluctantly) agreed so I've taken the liberty of including a side-by-side before-and-after view for your enjoyment. Again, I couldn't get the scaling quite right but you get the idea. All I can say is holy smokes, that's a lot of hardware.

The two images on the left pretty much say it all. She's going to have to get used to having so much of her spine rigid, but look at it! That's one good looking posture. No more deformation. No more risk of damage to her lungs or other internal organs.

On the way home we stopped to get some Subway and left Pants in the car. As I left she said, "Don't take too long. I'm probably worth a lot of money with all this metal in me." I love that she's still got her sense of humour.

Before this all went down I was talking to my friend and former band mate Jim. I asked him if he thought he could write a song for Pants. She absolutely loves music, and Jim's such a compassionate person (and a talented musician to boot), I figured this was a great idea. Well, today Jim and his band Woot Suit Riot released a song that I can only describe as amazing. Watching the video brought a tear to my eye and as soon as Pants wakes up from her nap I'm going to show it to her. She's heard a rough cut that was missing the harmonies but she was high as a kite at the time so it'll be nice for her to listen to it and see the video with her head less cloudy.

Here it is, in all it's awesomeness. Thank you, Jim and Woot Suit Riot, for doing this. It's an absolutely wonderful gesture and an absolutely wonderful song for an absolutely wonderful girl who we are absolutely proud to call our daughter.